EU delegation praises Turkey for ‘educating Syrian children’

ANKARA

A top EU enlargement official on May 17 lauded Turkey’s work to educate over a half-million Syrian children, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

A delegation led by Maciej Popowski, the EU’s deputy director general for neighborhood policy and enlargement negotiations, visited the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Education Center, an EU-supported training center for Syrian children in the capital Ankara’s Altındağ district.

Some 1,100 Syrian kids are receiving education at the center under the EU-sponsored project, Promoting Integration of Syrian Children to Turkish Education System (PICTES), the agency reported.

“Turkey’s Education Ministry has done a very special job for them. We are so impressed at what Turkey has done for 600,000 Syrian kids over the last two years,” Popowski said.

“What we saw was so impressive. We thank all who have worked for this project to be a success story,” he added.

“We are here to discuss future projects with Turkish officials as well. We hope these kinds of projects will continue,” said Popowski.